Page 2 of Faerie Fate (Fae Academy for Halflings #7)
I passed through the doorway, keenly aware of the zap of electricity through my system. I caught the echo of Coral still tapping her foot, cloth rustling as Livvy and Mike hustled after me, and then nothing.
Dead silence and mortal weight went hand in hand. The atmosphere here lacked the magic that made Faerie unique. Otherworldly.
My skin tingled all over, sweat coating my pores and clogging them. I gulped down air like a drowning woman and slid my hand into my pocket. The familiar weight of my own key to Faerie rested against my thigh.
Livvy paused to meet my eyes, bobbing her head once, and we split off from one another to cover more ground. Each one of us had our own keys just in case.
I held that knowledge close to my heart. Livvy would be fine. But Mike… Did he have the same catch in his lungs I did? Did he also feel the terrible, crazy doom settling over us, mingled with the nostalgia of being back where it all began?
The top of the staircase branched off into several long hallways, each of them leading to different wings of the academy. I paused, my hand against the wall, feeling for the tremors of footsteps.
Kendrick was smart. He understood that I would be coming for him. Already we’d waited too long. It was a crapshoot, a risk to come at all, because it was playing right into his hands.
I felt nothing and continued on to check the doorways lining the halls.
The first few classrooms I examined were empty.
The ancient books and stale magic scent in the air held no hint of wolf shifter.
Kendrick would never come alone. I had expected guards to roam the corridors in neat lines of bloodlust and duty. Instead, it was just me.
I ran into no one on the first floor, the rooms empty of life and magic. My heart tapping on my ribs, I crept toward the staircase, then I hauled myself up the risers one at a time to the second floor. Hopefully Livvy and Mike were having better luck.
We had to evacuate everyone. Leaving a single person behind to Kendrick’s violence wasn’t an option.
I hit the jackpot in the divination classroom. A flash of crimson caught my attention and I pushed open the door slowly enough to avoid the creaking hinges. There behind the desk, I detected another hint of red.
My eyesight sharpened. I want to call out but my tongue tied itself in knots instead.
Professor Marsh stuck her head out around the desk corner, immediately recognizable with her sleek fire-red hair and her slitted cat pupils.
“Tavi?” She hissed my name between clenched teeth. “That you?”
Relief was palpable.
It took everything inside of me not to rush forward and grab her in a hug. I let the door slide gently shut but I couldn’t risk a magic shield. Any change in energy might give away my position.
You don’t have the juice for a shield .
I lifted a finger to my lips and pressed forward. Scanning the room for any kind of traps. So far I saw nothing, but that didn’t mean there weren’t spells ready to detonate with the slightest misstep. I threw my senses out and came up blank. Okay, then. Now or never.
I approached Professor Marsh and noticed she was protecting two students behind her. I shoved my key into the wall, twisting it until a sliver of light glowed from the way to Faerie.
If the magic read my intentions correctly, the doorway would take them into the woods near the train depot outside of Eahsea, the same place the portal we’d used was aligned to.
Go, hurry . I mouthed the words to her and Marsh hustled forward, barefoot and awkward without the stilettos she always wore. The two students with her followed, and once they were over the threshold I closed the door, breathing heavily.
Okay, so three down.
How many more hundreds to go?
Melia and Coral stood by to help them on the other side. There would be no way for Kendrick to follow, if we did this correctly. If he tried to use my key, it wouldn’t work. I could escort people through the portal once it opened but no one else could use my key.
It was one of King Tywin’s failsafes for keeping the unwanted out of his world. In this case…hell, he might have had the right idea.
This first mini success wasn’t enough to boost my confidence, though. My brain whirred in too many directions to count and the rest of me was too tight, too loose. I stumbled out of the classroom. My frantic gaze swept over the empty deserted hallway.
Where were the wolf shifters? Why wasn’t anyone rushing me, ready for a fight?
I searched three more dusty rooms before I found more students hiding in Tamerlain Hall, my old dormitory.
The bunks had been ripped from the walls and left for toothpicks. The devastation was complete, a crater where my old bunk used to be, or maybe it was my imagination. Maybe I only thought that was where I’d slept my first two years here.
I shook my head and checked the bathroom, pulling open the door to a chorus of startled gasps.
“You have to be kidding me.”
The acerbic tone came from a floating head at the back of the small group. One I recognized with a groan because Professor Hoarfrost was unmistakable. White hair, icy blue eyes, he’d had it out for me my first year.
Homeroom teachers weren’t supposed to play favorites, but he had.
And right now, practically hidden and trembling beneath one of his arms, was Nora Kwan. My old friend had let her black hair grow. Her narrow, suspicious eyes latched onto mine and her lips opened in an O of surprise.
“What the hell are you doing here, Tavi Alderidge?” Hoarfrost continued.
“I’m saving your ass,” I answered evenly.
As good as it was to find my Nora, to see her clinging to Hoarfrost left a terrible taste in my mouth. Like he was some kind of hero when he had never been one before.
“I’m getting you out.” I shoved my key into the tile wall and twisted it. “Go, now, before someone comes.”
There were five other students with them, a mix of ages and genders. Poor kids. They didn’t deserve this. None of them did, not even Hoarfrost. My personal dislike of the old teacher had nothing to do with my need to get them into Faerie and safe.
Hoarfrost took his time rising to his feet as I escorted the other students over the border. Most of them stared at the door like I’d introduced their personal boogeyman as my best friend.
Only Nora remained behind Hoarfrost, who watched me steadily from the mortal side of the threshold.
“You came for me,” she whispered. “You're really here. You’re okay. I worried so much about you.”
I let my hood drop fully back and grabbed her in a tight hug. “I could say the same thing.”
No time . The little voice in my head needed to shut up for a second and let me enjoy the reunion.
My heart pounded out a harsh and unsustainable rhythm. “We’ll talk later. Right now, you’ve got to go. Melia is waiting.”
I hoped the familiar name would strike a chord with Nora. Her eyes searched my face, her pupils completely taken over by black, and at last she nodded.
“I’ll hold you to that, Tavi.”
Nora was an orphan, like me. Or like I had been.
She was hesitant to leave, but Hoarfrost bristled and his attention was like the sting of cold on my skin. I pushed Nora through the door, then glanced back for Hoarfrost.
“Well?” I snapped. “You going or not?”
His time to play the hero was done. He approached gingerly, still watching me like he was ready for me to detonate at any moment. Finally he bobbed his head in a curt acknowledgement. The second they were both safe, with Coral not quite welcoming them with open arms, I slammed the door shut.
I made my way out of the ravaged dorms, always searching for more survivors. Where was everyone hiding?
Seconds became years and I braced before turning every corner. I pushed my weak body and dizzy head up the next set of stairs to the third floor and found only a handful of other students before I came to the last room at the end of the corridor.
Immediately, the stench of rot burned a trail to the bottom of my lungs. My fingers shook on the doorknob. Then I opened it and the full scent wrapped me in a hot, fetid embrace.
The room was packed wall to wall with bodies. All of them dumped haphazardly on the floor and left in a tangle of decaying flesh. All of them mauled by shifters.